


three desks in an archive

by genesis_frog



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: (mentioned a couple of times), Alcohol, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Minor Character Death, Relationship Study, Unfinished
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 01:39:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18863122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genesis_frog/pseuds/genesis_frog
Summary: The Archivist’s office is windowless and small, but not cramped, lined with bookshelves and filing cabinets. Elias Bouchard’s office two floors above is spacious and sunny, lit like a Gothic cathedral, and meticulously organized.Martin and Sasha and Tim are not so lucky.





	three desks in an archive

**Author's Note:**

> a character relationship study through the lens of the workspaces in the archive? I Guess? i wrote this back in march and i know that it's not technically ~complete~ but i have nothing to add to it so take it

The Archivist’s office is windowless and small, but not cramped, lined with bookshelves and filing cabinets. Elias Bouchard’s office two floors above is spacious and sunny, lit like a Gothic cathedral, and meticulously organized.

Martin and Sasha and Tim are not so lucky. They don't have their own spaces, but it suits them just fine. Their three desks are arranged in a triangle in one corner of the Archive, their boss’ office across the way. The room is large and chilly and echoes uncomfortably, but Martin has put together a space for tea preparation, and Sasha has a small house plant, and Tim has a stash of blankets and booze, and all is well.

One day, Sasha disposes of the plant. “I don't want it anymore,” she explains casually, seriously. Martin feels compelled to save it. Sasha shrugs.

One desk is empty. Not-Sasha had robbed the workspace of any genuine personality, leaving behind stock-photo portraits and home-magazine knickknacks. Tim and Martin don't take any mementos and throw as much as they can away. Martin waters the plant on his desk, Tim takes a shot, and neither of them look at the empty desk beside them.

Melanie takes the third desk. When she realizes it was Sasha’s, she runs her fingers along its scratched and ancient edge reverently, as if she might learn the way a hand may have moved to create them. Sitting in its chair feels like being embraced, not being imprisoned, not like the towering shelves and colossal cabinets and eerie echoes.

Basira is annoyed to discover there is no fourth desk, only the three. Tim and Martin manage to dig a folding table out of a dusty, cobweb-cornered closet. One of the legs doesn't bend quite right, so it sits at a bit of an angle, but Basira figures she won't be doing much work for a while, anyway. Tim wrestles the thing into standing by the small, lumpy couch Martin saved from some curb somewhere, so Basira can use that for sitting instead of trying to track down a similarly awful folding chair. All in all, it works fairly well.

Basira and Martin take to recording statements in Jon’s absence in his office. He's quite messy, papers stacked in organization only he knows and many files have coffee ring stains on their outsides. They sit in his chair cautiously, as if he will come in at any moment, but he never does.

After the Unknowing, it gets even quieter, as if the dusty air itself is lonely. Melanie sits at her desk alone: Martin has moved upstairs, Tim has blown up, and Basira is doing whatever she does. So Melanie is alone, and angry, and trapped, and her captor is just as jailed as she but she can't do anything about it. She doesn't go through Tim’s belongings, she leaves his jacket on the back of his chair and the tiny statues of cartoonish monsters on the tabletop. She does drink his booze.


End file.
